Kimberley Chan

Live, Learn and Travel: Life Two Years Post-Surgery

Just a quick post to update you all on where I am now. Two years ago today I didn’t know what life had in store for me. I didn’t know whether I would be able have normal conversations with my friends and family again, listen to music, dance and worse of all, travel on my own. I was finally going in for my long-awaited CI surgery, which I urgently needed after The Day My Life Changed.

Fast forward, two years later: My health and hearing status is the same as it was one year ago. I’m roaming around Europe and have spent the last three months teaching English in Seville, Spain. It hasn’t always been easy. Living in a country where the language, customs and mentalities are different from where you’re from takes a certain amount of patience. Two years ago, all my patience was overtaken by fear and anxiety. I would have never imagined myself trying to find my way alone in a maze of cobblestone roads and speaking Spanish (with a Mexican accent) while trying (emphasis on trying) to get used to the Sevillian accent. They speak so quickly and pronounce (or mispronounce) a lot of words differently that most of the time I have no idea what they are saying!

Through my closed bedroom door in my apartment in the outskirts of Sevilla’s bustling city centre, I can hear my flatmates having a conversation in Spanish two rooms over. I can’t understand every word, but do catch some words once in awhile. Spain is a loud country – life here is all about conversation, vino, fiesta, tapas, siesta, repeat.

The time during which I went through the scary-as-hell stage of not knowing what I would be waking up to and not being able to control how my day would go has changed my perspective on a lot of things. Over the last year I’ve learned to stay away from anything or anyone negative. After being trapped inside for a year, you realize you don’t have time for anything like that.

So instead of pushing for a raise or a promotion at my corporate job, I choose to take my life on the road so I can learn new skills, and connect with old and new friends and just live. You can learn a lot of things about life as well as about yourself from being in new places and around new people, as long as you give yourself permission to go and experience that.

If you’ve been on this website before, you’ll notice that I added a new heading called Live, Learn and Travel. Watch this section for more stories about my experiences in life and travel!

 

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